HMS Calliope (1914)

HMS Calliope (1914)

HMS Calliope was a C class light cruiser of the Royal Navy under construction at the outbreak of World War I. Both Calliope and her sister ship Champion were based on HMS Caroline. They were effectively test ships for the use of geared turbines which resulted in the one less funnel. They also received slightly thicker armour. They led into the first of the Cambrian subclass.

Eight light cruisers were ordered for the Royal Navy in the 1913 budget. The six ships of the Caroline class used conventional direct drive turbine engines but Calliope and Caroline each had a different engine design using geared reduction to match optimum working speeds of turbines and propellers. This followed experimental designs ordered in 1911 using geared high pressure turbines for the destroyers Badger and Beaver and in 1912 using gearing for both high pressure and low pressure turbines in destroyers Leonidas and Lucifer.

Calliope was built at HM Dockyard, Chatham, Kent. She was laid down in January 1914, launched on 17 December 1914, and completed in June 1915.

Calliope had four shafts as used in the Caroline design but unlike the two used in Champion. Gearing increased the efficiency of power transmission to the water so allowed smaller boilers and turbines to be used than otherwise would be the case. Nominal design power for the same target speed was therefore reduced from 40,000 shp in the caroline class to 37,500 shp. Propeller speed was 480 rpm.

She was badly damaged by a fuel oil fire while at sea on 19 March 1916, but was repaired in time to be one of the five ships in the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. She received a number of hits just before night-time (notably by the Kaiser and Markgraf battleships), and 10 of her crew were killed as a result of the battle.

On 1 September 1917 Calliope was involved in the sinking of four German trawlers.